Jammu, September 29: Lot is being said about women empowerment in India with NGOs, government and other vocal chords stressing for Beti Bachao Beti Padao Abhiyan to bring women to fore front and equip and involve them in the affairs of the society and administration.
While election commission has advocated 33% reservation for women in the electoral process the reality is something different and most of the times it is the women who is kept aside to pave way for men to rung the affairs of the house, society, administration or even the government.
In J&K we hardly have any example of a women being elevated to the top most post to let her run the affairs of the state or administration fearing that things might go out of the hands of male chauvinist society.
Even though there are numerous examples of strong women playing a leading role in the transforming the society before Independence viz Lala Ded, Kota Rani, Habbba Khatoon etc but we hardly come across any women that has lead or was allowed to lead the society in times of crisis after the Independence even though many of them were given berths in Assembly or Rajya Sabha but none has played very significant role in leading the state to new horizons.
In this connection if we analyze the hierarchy of different political parties we find that no party has ever let the women grow beyond a certain limit to maintain the male supremacy in politics as well as in administration.
The state has yet to see a women police chief or a civil servant heading the administration as that depends on the hierarchy in the administration but at political front we could have groomed many firebrand women politicians to head the parties or the government to try the real women empowerment in our own state.
Since no party seems to have any women of that substance as yet who can lead the state to greater heights the focus shifts to People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which has not only a women heading the party but also highly experienced in governance who can head the state to see the real women empowerment in this troubled state.
Mehbooba Mufti, the president of PDP has many things that are required to try the women empowerment in the state to see whether women can get us out of the troubles through her governance.
History is witness to the fact that Kashmir has seen the power of women in many ways be it the strong ruler-ship of Kota Rani, social reformist Lal De or rebellious the rise of Habba Khatoon but in so called modern times we are yet to see the one.
Among these the heroics of Kota Rani are quite evident as she was very intelligent and a great thinker. She saved the city of Srinagar from frequent floods by getting a canal constructed, named after her and called “Kute Kol”. This canal gets water from Jhelum River at the entry point of city and again merges with Jhelum River beyond the city limits.
Similarly Mehbooba Mufti has many things to her side like the majority in the state Assembly, her experience as MLA and MP, new ideas and being the president of the ruling party she has all the ability to head the government with authority to prove that even women can turnaround the situation in this troubled state.
It is in this context that one can conclude that J&K needs a young leadership to govern and what better option can we get to chose a women to head the state having experience, caliber and political power so that the state also tries another option instead of run of the mill male rulers who till now have failed to bring some respite to the people.